D Day! Zero and Counting

We made it through an uneventful night. Started off late though, they overlooked the special room cleaning yesterday. So, at 10 p.m. last night they were scrambling to clean and Clorox Kristen's room bottom to top. We had to remove all of her belongings. We got back into the room after 11 p.m. and were able to get some sleep. Kristen slept in this morning while they were making preparations for her stem cell transplant. I finally got an opportunity to meet her inpatient stem cell doc, Dr. Petropoulus (sp?). I got to ask him some questions on what to expect. He said that today should be smooth. Around 1:15 we were ready to go, Rev. Maddox (peds chaplain) came in and blessed the cells while Steven, Devin, Kristen, Dr. P. and Nurse Anne all laid hands on the bag. Pretty cool. He prayed for the donor and that the cells would enter her body and do their job. Anne took her vital signs every 15 minutes so that they could watch for any adverse reaction. The entire transfusion process lasted about 4 1/2 hours. So now Kristen is O positive instead of AB positive. She takes on the blood type of the donor. She has a little bit of swelling so they have given her a diuretic. That will give her some exercise! In the next few days she will start really feeling the effects of the chemo.

After they got Kristen started with her stem cells, I took time to hang out with Steven. We had a great time searching out a Father's Day present. We also had a nice visit over lunch. He was anxious to get back to the apartment by then so he could get in some game time! We are all doing fine. It's nice to all be together or at least in the same city for a few days.

Please continue to pray for a successful graft and minimal chemo side effects. Also pray that she is able to avoid Graft vs. Host disease. Also, please pray for all the staff that it takes to make this possible, from the most skilled to the least. They are all important in her recovery.